Charles Barkley agrees with George Zimmerman verdict

Charles Barkley has never been one to shy away from controversy, and on Thursday he weighed in with his opinion on the George Zimmerman verdict.

“Well, I agree with the verdict,” Barkley told CNBC. “I feel sorry that young kid got killed, but they didn’t have enough evidence to charge him. Something clearly went wrong that night — clearly something went wrong — and I feel bad for anybody who loses a kid, but if you looked at the case and you don’t make it — there was some racial profiling, no question about it — but something happened that changed the dynamic of that night.”

Barkley added that because of the lack of evidence, he doesn't think that Zimmerman should go to jail "for the rest of his life."

“Mr. Zimmerman was wrong to pursue, he was racial profiling, but I think Trayvon Martin — God rest his soul — I think he did flip the switch and started beating the hell out of Mr. Zimmerman. But it was just a bad situation," Barkley said.

Barkley, 50, went on to express disappointment in what he perceived as racism in the media.

"I just feel bad because I don’t like when race gets out in the media because I don’t think the media has a ‘pure heart,’ as I call it,” Barkley said. “There are very few people who have a pure heart when it comes to race. Racism is wrong in any shape [or] form — there are a lot of black people who are racist, too. I think sometimes when people talk about race, they act like only white people are racist. There are a lot of black people who are racist. And I don’t like when it gets out there in the media because I don’t think the media has clean hands.”